Zeichick’s Take: The biggest influencers in your life

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Who is the top influence in your life? Your parents? Your first manager? Your spouse or significant other? Your best friend? Your first boss? A special teacher or professor? A spiritual leader? All of the above, perhaps?

I enjoy talking to friends and colleagues about their top influencers. People enjoy telling stories about special moments, moments that changed their lives.

The same is true of top influencers in our profession. Which companies, organizations or projects changed the art and science of software development? That’s what we want to know, as part of the 10th anniversary of the SD Times 100.

When we looked at the “Influencers” category (which appeared in the SD Times 100 in 2004), we counted 37 separate winners. Some were corporations; some were projects; some were individuals; and some were concepts.

We’d like your help in narrowing down the biggest of the big, the top of the top, the most significant influencers of the past decade.